— By David Walsh
They’re happy in the land called Happy Valley.
They’re celebrating the start of Penn State football under new coach Matt Campbell, who came over from Iowa State along with 24 former Cyclones.
Quarterback Rocco Becht, one of the former Cyclones who followed Campbell, lived up to his billing in a big way Saturday. He amassed 271 yards and four scores through the air in two-plus quarters to power the 18th-ranked Nittany Lions past Marshall, 45-0, to delight the 108,489 fans at renovated Beaver Stadium.
“They beat us up,” Marshall coach Tony Gibson said in a postgame interview on the Herd radio network. ”All three phases. We got punched in the face and couldn’t recover. We have to come out and fight all day long. I felt like we didn’t do that today.”
The kind of day it would be for the Thundering Herd was indicative on the opening kickoff. The visitors from the Sun Belt Conference got flagged for sideline interference and the home team took over at midfield. Becht, making his 40th career start, drove his team into field goal range and Kyle Barker connected from 34 yards out and the rout was on.
“It started with the kickoff return to set them up, but we held them to a field goal,” Gibson said. “We gave up too many explosive plays for TDs. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
On the next drive, Becht hooked up with wide out Koby Howard for a 33-yard TD on a crossing route. Howard got open in the middle of the field and raced to the end zone.
On its third possession, Becht fired to tight end Benjamin Eskildsen on a tunnel screen and he sprinted 25 yards for a TD and 17-0 lead with 4:49 on the clock.
Becht got his third TD pass of the first half when he found tight end Benjamin Brahmer open on a post in the end zone. He hit Howard again for a 42-yard pass to keep the drive alive.
Right before the end of the half, new Herd placekicker Jorge Diaz Nicholas trotted onto the field for his first field goal try. It would be from 52 yards. Just before the snap, Campbell called time out and nullified the attempt, which was good. On the second try, the transfer from Virginia missed wide right to set the score at 24-0 at the half.
Becht finished 13-of-18 for 271 yards to go with four TDs. He departed midway through the third period and Alex Menske came on. Becht completed 10-of-15 tries for 203 yards and three scores in the first half. Howard had four catches for 123 yards and two scores. He finished with six for 161. Tight end Toby Payne paced the Herd with 55 yards on eight catches.
“Becht’s a great football player,” Gibson said. “He’s played in the same system for five years. Give coach Campbell and his staff a lot of credit.”
Cooper Heimbach made his debut as the Herd’s punter and had a 42 yard average on eight punts. Four finished inside the 20.
“Cooper did a good job,” Gibson said. “He punted way too many times. It’s better when he’s not on the stat sheet. We have to tackle, block … everything needs to get better. We can’t let this beat us two times in a row (45-7 loss at Georgia in Gibson’s debut in 2025). We’ve got to own our mistakes. We have to have a great day, great week for the next game. Get ready to play.”
Del-Rio Wilson hit on 14-of-20 passes for just 88 yards as the Penn State defense exhibited a good pass rush and shadowed receivers well. He left with 105 yards on 17-of-25. He was the top rusher as well with 30 yards.
The Nittany Lions struck twice for scores in the third period. Becht found Zay Robinson for a 39-yard TD at 11:14 and Quinton Martin ran in from 6 yards out for the first rushing TD in the Campbell era.
Midway through the final period, Zion Turner took over for Del-Rio Wilson and had a third-down pass picked off by Penn State’s Bryson Williams at the 30. The Nittany Lions, which converted a fourth-and-1 for the second time in the drive would score on a 6-yard run by Cam Wallace for a 45-0 lead with 7:59 left in the contest.
Penn State had 487 total yards to 147 for the Herd. The Nittany Lions converted 8-of-16 third downs and went 2-of-2 on fourth. Marshall closed 1-of-11 on third down.
Saturday’s game marked the largest crowd ever for a Herd game. The previous high was 106,520 in 2003 against Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
Marshall now gets ready for its home opener next Saturday against Middle Tennessee at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Start time is 7 p.m.